


Change of Plans

by Noyuuki



Category: Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Domestic Fluff, Don’t copy to another site, Established Relationship, Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 04:00:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17358536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noyuuki/pseuds/Noyuuki
Summary: After Hanai moved out for college, Tajima visits him in his new apartment. And as the afternoon progresses in ways neither of them had planned, they realize that sometimes a change of plans isn't a bad thing.





	Change of Plans

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for [Frosted](http://frostedeclair.tumblr.com) as part of the Oofuri Secret Santa 2018

The soft sizzling coming from the pot on his stove just barely occupied Hanai’s consciousness as he kept glancing to the door just a few meters behind him. He knew it was impossible to not hear the doorbell—or even just a knock—from this distance but part of him was still anxious that he might miss it.

Today, his boyfriend would finally visit him in Tokyo, for the first time since he moved out for college last year.

In a way it was surprising that it hadn’t happened earlier. But it made sense in another.

During his first semester, Hanai went back to Saitama almost every weekend, partly to see his family, but definitely also for _him_. It was still a big change to what they had before, but he thought they managed. And he felt more like home when he saw him back where they had met.  
Then, as the semester drew to a close and college became more demanding, he stayed in Tokyo far more often. Not always willingly, but “The first year is the hardest,” he told himself while hoping that it would change again after the next wave of exams, assignments, and team scrimmages.

Tajima often suggested to come over when Hanai couldn’t. It wasn’t a bad thought, to be honest. Hanai missed him and phone calls definitely weren’t the same. But he still told him no because the dorm rooms were already tiny without visitors and he didn’t know his roommates well enough to feel comfortable having his boyfriend over. Less so a boyfriend who didn’t feel inclined to hold back any public displays of affection regardless of who was around.

When fall came, Hanai moved into a one-room apartment a little further from campus and that problem disappeared. But it was also the time when the results of the first round of exams sank in and Hanai realized that he might have underestimated the whole college situation a little. And as far as baseball went, he still hadn’t established himself in the university’s team as much as he wanted. Though he also wasn’t at the top of his game since leaving Nishiura.  
As much as he wanted to see Tajima, even just for emotional support, he also knew that he wouldn’t get the least bit of studying or practice done if he visited. Well, maybe the latter but he didn’t come here purely for sports, so with a heavy heart he stayed stubborn.

And so, two months after he could last spare the time to go back home for a new year’s visit, spring break came and with it, finally a time where there was no reason to say no to Tajima.

Anxiously waiting for his boyfriend to finally arrive, Hanai stirred the chunks of meat and vegetables, sizzling away in the pot. He had meant to be done with cooking already. In fact, he had meant to pick up Tajima at the train station.  
Ever since knowing when he would arrive, Hanai had been making plans for the day to make sure he’d manage an appropriately warm welcome. And, well… also an apology for being so far away and busy for almost a whole year.

But just as life plays sometimes, the day before he could enact that plan, the washing machines in the apartment complex broke down and as Hanai started preparing dinner, two hours before he had to head to the train station, the old lady from downstairs knocked on his door to ask if he could help her carry some laundry to a nearby self-service laundry place. Normally he would have agreed without a doubt because she was one of the nicer neighbors around and occasionally even brought him some leftover food when she had cooked too much for herself.  
But this was the one day where Hanai couldn’t spare a single minute and vigorously tried to talk himself out of the situation before begrudgingly helping her out, telling himself that he’d still be back early enough to get to the station in time.

He wasn’t.

Just as the washing machine came to a halt, he sent Tajima an apologetic message with his address and a description of how to get there. When Hanai was finally back home, he hurriedly continued preparing dinner, making it his sole goal to finish at least this one thing before his boyfriend arrived.

The meat was still somewhat red when the doorbell rang.

Unsure whether to feel disappointment that even this fallback plan hadn’t worked out as hoped or excitement that it was only a matter of seconds before he would see Tajima again, Hanai turned down the heat on the stove and rushed to the door.

“Azusaaa!” Tajima shouted and practically leapt at Hanai who was so glad to see his boyfriend that he didn’t even mind the deafening use of his first name.

He gave into the embrace, feeling all the stress and tenseness from the last few weeks melt away. Until he noticed that something felt very wrong.

“You’re wet.”

Tajima slowly stepped back, the beginnings of a pout forming on his face.

“What, that’s the first thing to say to me?”

Finally getting a good look at the person in front of him, Hanai briefly stayed silent, perplexed that Tajima looked as if he’d just been swimming, clothes and all, before making his way to the apartment.

“N-no, I mean I’m happy to see you but seriously, you’re _drenched_.”

It hadn’t rained all day, all week actually, and even if it had, the station was only about ten minutes from his apartment so Hanai couldn’t think of any sensible explanation for… this.

Not showing any signs of wanting to explain the state he was in, Tajima fumbled to pick up his bag while dripping all over the floor.

“What happened?” Hanai asked, still more than puzzled.

Tajima simply walked inside, a wet squeak following his every step, and gave Hanai an exasperated “Don’t wanna talk about it.”

He dropped his bag just as he dropped the issue and went on to take off his shoes, stopping midway as a sneeze forced itself out, almost as if it wanted to ruin his attempt at pretending that everything was perfectly normal.

“Are you okay? If you want to take a shower, the bathroom is right there,” Hanai said, slowly replacing confusion with worry.

Tajima turned around, a grin on his face that already told Hanai what he was about to hear.

“Good call~ Care to join me then?”

It took more effort to refuse than Hanai wanted to admit.

“Sorry, I need to keep an eye on our dinner.”

Tajima didn’t even try to hide his disappointment but Hanai, still dead set on at least accomplishing part of his planned welcome, silently vowed to make it all up.

“Well, your loss.”

As Tajima took off towards the bathroom, already undressing on the way, Hanai quietly watched, still feeling torn. He knew his boyfriend well enough to realize that there was nothing to worry about. That he was still just as happy about their reunion as Hanai was himself.  
But the more he thought about it, the more he felt like so far this welcome had been pretty much the opposite of what he had originally planned.

_Well, all the more reason to make up for it!_

Taking his eyes off the now closed bathroom door, Hanai picked up the clothes that were scattered on the floor, intending to put them out of the way on Tajima’s bag. Only that even the bag was completely soaked as he soon realized.

_What the hell?,_ Hanai thought before putting up his drying rack. With the washing facilities out of order he had no access to the driers either so even if it would take a while, this had to do for now.

From the bathroom, Hanai could hear the spray of the shower and as he unpacked Tajima’s bag to hang his clothes to dry, he wondered if it was too late to join him. At least until the faint smell of burning reminded him that he’d been distracted for just a little too long.

Panicked and feeling defeated that even this last part of his big welcome plan was now in the process of almost literally going up in flames, Hanai stormed to the kitchen counter, hoping he could still salvage it.

There wasn’t much that wasn’t at least a little burned but after scraping off as much of it as he could, Hanai poured in water and curry roux to at least finish _something_.

He listlessly stirred the curry when suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around him from behind and Tajima rested his chin on his shoulder.

“Whatcha cooking?”

His hair wasn’t fully dry yet and the scent of soap still surrounded Tajima. Hanai relaxed and gently leaned his head against his boyfriend’s.

“Curry,” he mumbled, failing to hide his frustration. “Cause I thought I couldn’t mess it up.”

After the last few years, Hanai knew better than to lower himself to make up for their height difference. But he also knew how to shift his stance to still make this more comfortable for Tajima.

“Well, I’m starving so anything’s gonna be fine!” Tajima replied, the usual carefree grin on his face. Or at least that’s how it sounded to Hanai.

This closeness felt immensely relaxing and he wouldn’t have minded if it had continued forever. For a moment nothing else seemed to matter. All his worries seemed insignificant in the grand scale of things.

Hanai eventually turned down the heat on the stove and turned around, smiling at Tajima and gently holding him by the shoulders. He had barely leaned in for a kiss when Tajima already met him halfway, or a little past it rather…

“I missed you,” “Me too,” “I’m so glad you’re here,” “I’ve wanted this so much,” they whispered as hands ran through hair and across backs and their breathing became one.  
Tajima moved on to kiss Hanai’s neck, almost starved after the last two months.

As much as he wanted to get lost in this, the curry behind him still took up more of his thoughts than Hanai wanted and ultimately distracted him from who he’d looked forward to all day.

Initially he only meant to take a break.

“By the way…” Hanai cautiously started. “Do you plan to stay like this? Not that I mind, it just might get a little… cold?”

Tajima still only had a towel wrapped around his waist. He let off and looked at Hanai slightly discontent that he brought this up now of all times.

“Well, my clothes are wet what am I supposed to do?”

Hanai, now regretting his decision to interrupt what they’d been doing, meekly answered.

“I know, I know. It just _really_ gets cold here at night. I can turn up the heat as much as I want it doesn’t change much.”

Tajima looked at him as if this wasn’t a sufficient reason to get dressed, let alone put an end to their first make-out session in months.

“Just borrow some of my clothes, I don’t want you getting sick right when we see each other again,” Hanai said, now wondering too if he was overreacting.

“Aww, you’re so cute when you’re worried~” Tajima teased with just enough genuineness in his voice that part of Hanai wondered if it was actually supposed to be a compliment.

He took a deep breath to refute the remark before realizing that he _was_ worried and there was actually nothing he could say to that.  
Either way, before he had time to react, his boyfriend had already turned around again and set off to the wardrobe, chuckling—probably because of the face Hanai was making while trying to come up with a reply.

“I-it’s at the wall to the left,” he said although the wardrobe was already in plain sight as he realized right after. Trying to hide his blush he turned back to the stove.

_What are you doing getting all flustered now? Your two-year anniversary is coming up, it’s not like you just started dating!_

Hanai tried to dedicate all his attention to the rice cooker and the curry that was still quietly bubbling on the stove.

He could hear Tajima rummaging through his wardrobe and it sounded like he was having the time of his life pulling out all the pieces of clothing Hanai never, or just very rarely wore, while commenting on them, usually reinforcing _why_ he kept them so deep in his closet. It felt weirdly reassuring that his apartment wasn’t filled with the usual silence for once.  
He had missed hearing Tajima’s laugh in person. And slowly it sank in that he’d get to hear it for the next week or two.

Eventually it got quiet for a moment before Hanai could hear Tajima walk back up to him and ask:

“How come I’ve never seen you wear this?”

A part of Hanai was afraid to turn around, not sure what to expect with how serious Tajima’s question had sounded.

When he did muster the courage, he saw Tajima wearing a pair of his jeans, rolled up so they weren’t too long, and a sweater Hanai didn’t even know had made it through the move. It had been a gift years ago but what for or from whom had long slipped his mind.

It was a bit too wide for Tajima who was proudly showcasing it to his boyfriend.

“It’d look good on you!”

Hanai seriously doubted that.

There wasn’t anything particularly wrong with the sweater, but something about the combination of yellow stripes and a baseball print on the front had seemed too childish for Hanai to wear it in high school and looking at it now, it still didn’t exactly fit the style he was going for nowadays.

“Oh… uh, you think?” Hanai said with as little contempt for the piece of clothing as he could manage. It was still more than apparent.

“Well, if you don’t want it, I’d be glad to keep it for myself~”

Hanai couldn’t help but chuckle. The sweater still looked ridiculous to him but somehow Tajima managed to pull off the look.

“You’re cute, you know,” he inadvertently said before being interrupted by the beeping of the rice cooker, letting them know that dinner was just about ready now.

As they were setting the table, Tajima filled the silence with some mindless, cheerful chatter about the latest events back home and Hanai only now realized how much he had missed that.  
Even when they ate the conversation didn’t let up and slowly forgetting about everything that went wrong that day, Hanai was lulled into a comfortable warmth that reminded him of what he loved about being with his boyfriend.

He didn’t ask how the curry was, and Tajima said nothing about it. Even if he had said it was good, Hanai might have thought he only said it out of consideration. Maybe that’s why he stayed silent. Instead, Tajima kept happily eating, which was probably all the reassurance Hanai needed to know that it couldn’t be too bad.

He still felt like apologizing. Not just for the curry.

“Sorry, uh… today has been kind of a disaster.”

But Tajima just laughed in agreement before replying:

“I don’t mind. I’m just happy to be here.”

Before too long they were done eating and the two of them ended up on the couch, snuggled up, about to start watching a movie. They never got that far though. Neither of them wanted to get up to turn on the TV and it would only have been background noise, anyway.

For a moment they simply stayed like they were, enjoying the silence. There wasn’t anything they needed to say. Just being there was enough.

The sun was already beginning to set and Hanai knew that once it was gone, the room would rapidly cool down. For the first time since moving in, it seemed unimportant though. Tajima was like a human furnace and even without a blanket, Hanai felt warmer than he had in a long time. And not just physically.

He leaned his head against Tajima’s and would have been content just staying like this indefinitely. But now that the day was ringing out, there was still something he wanted to know. Even at the risk of ruining the moment.

“So… You never actually told me what happened earlier.”

Tajima turned his head, looking mildly upset that _this_ was what Hanai brought up right then.

“It’s embarrassing,” he mumbled.

“It’s fine, I won’t laugh. Just tell me.”

For a moment Tajima remained silent before reluctantly answering the question.

“I fell in the river.”

Caught off guard, Hanai couldn’t help but chuckle which quickly earned him a glare. In an attempt to stifle it, he cleared his throat and tried to let go of the frankly comical mental image, which brought back some concern to his voice.

“Why? What happened?”

Still resting his head on Hanai’s chest, Tajima stared nowhere in particular.

“You remember that last home run you hit for Nishiura?”

“Yeah, what of it?”

“Well, I tracked down the ball! Someone who came all the way from Fukuoka had picked it up and trust me it wasn’t easy to get it back!”

Hanai briefly wondered if Tajima was trying to change the topic but even if he was, his interest was piqued so for now he kept quiet and listened to the rest of the story.

“I thought it would be a nice gift since you’re trying to get a starting position here. It was even in exactly the same condition as it was when you hit it! Well, until today…”

“What does this have to do with you falling into the river though? Am I missing something?”

Tajima sat up and reached for his jacket on the drying rack next to the sofa. Hanai could hear the zipper of one of the pockets being opened and when Tajima slumped back down beside him, he stretched out his hand to Hanai, showing him a baseball that didn’t look new but definitely not like it’s been used in a game.

“I was kinda mad when you sent me the message that you couldn’t pick me up. So out of frustration I played around with the ball on my way here. Just that right after I crossed the bridge some guy ran into me and I dropped it.”

“Into the river,” Hanai interjected gradually making sense of the story.

“Kinda,” Tajima replied, hints of embarrassment in his voice.

“And you jumped after it?”

“No! I caught it before it could roll over the edge. But with the bag and everything I lost my balance in the process and fell in, still holding the ball.”

Hanai knew the bridge and the river well and even if the banks weren’t very steep, they still stood tall enough that falling down there couldn’t be pleasant.

“Shit, you could have gotten hurt! Don’t do that!”

“It’s not like I _wanted_ to fall into the river. But I couldn’t just lose the ball when I was about to give it to you. Even if it looks like any other ball now…”

Suddenly Tajima’s bad mood when Hanai had asked him about this earlier made sense. He hadn’t even considered that maybe Tajima had made plans of his own, let alone that maybe those plans could have gone wrong even more spectacularly than a missed appointment and some burnt curry.

Hanai took the ball from his boyfriend and mustered it for a short while.

“Actually, I think it’s more fitting this way. It’s like a fresh start now! Plus, how could I not like it when you risked your neck to get it here.”

Tajima blushed as their gazes met and he snuggled back up to Hanai. After a moment of hesitation he spoke up again, his voice a lot softer than usual.

“What would you say if I wanted to come to Tokyo?”

They had talked about this. Before Hanai moved out, Tajima had suggested coming with him, even if he didn’t plan to enter university. And there had been a lot of back and forth until they ended up in their current situation.

“Or if I wanted to move in with you?” he continued.

Still, after the last year it didn’t seem strange that he’d want to reconsider. Deep down, Hanai was the same.

He could feel Tajima tense up ever so slightly, waiting for a response. Letting out a sigh and squeezing the other’s hand Hanai tried to make sense of his thoughts.

“I already told you I don’t want you to move just for me.”

Was that really it? Tajima was still serious about baseball and Hanai hadn’t wanted him to move out only to spend all his time working to pay rent without a chance to pursue it further. But staying home didn’t necessarily give him more chances, did it?

“It’s not just for you! A bunch of clubs are having tryouts soon and I could easily get to four of them from here!”

It was true that there were more professional teams around Tokyo. Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all? If they lived together even the rent wouldn’t be as much of a problem…

“But,” Tajima continued; “You’re definitely a bonus.”

Just to make sure, Hanai gave it a bit more thought. He didn’t find a reason to change his mind again though.

“I’d love that,” he ultimately said.

Right after, Hanai could feel Tajima’s embrace tighten.

“Don’t you mean you love me?” Tajima chuckled, playfully cocky.

Hanai could hear he was happy. Even if his words seemed kind of roundabout.

“That too,” Hanai laughed and kissed his boyfriends temple.

“I love you too,” Tajima finally answered more sincerely.

To be honest, Hanai had been dreading the moment when Tajima would have to leave again right from the second he had stepped through the door. The thought of living with him really did seem great. Even if it had worked out, Hanai really didn’t want a repeat of the last few months.

They never talked about specifics that day, but even just the prospect was already enough. Before too long Hanai could feel himself drifting off to sleep, feeling more than content and at ease. If anything, he could get used to falling asleep like this. Possibly regularly.

And maybe that future wasn’t all that far away.

**Author's Note:**

> Too late did I notice that a train ride from Saitama to Tokyo takes three hours at most...  
> Anyway, when I got the prompt I was initially a bit worried because I didn't feel very confident in my ability to write domestic fluff. So I first thought about drawing something instead but as I was thinking about motives I automatically made up plot fragments and ultimately ended up connecting some of them and warmed up to the idea of writing again so here we are now.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this! It was definitely a nice change of pace to write for somebody else for once and I hope I didn't somehow miss the target completely :'D
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
